Version 1.20.0 Broke Petition

I haven’t had any reports about this at all and can’t reproduce it.

However when I look at your site using the developer console I can see a Javascript error. I don’t see those errors on my test sites.

I have tweaked code in 1.20.1 that will stop the error. Please advise whether it solves the problem.

I had the same problem.

I just installed 1.20.1. When I create a new petition I get a message that the petition was created. 1.20.1 Petition created. Use [emailpetition id=”0″] to display in a page or post. Use [signaturelist id=”0″] to display the signatures list or [signaturecount id=”0″] to show just the signature count.

When I click on “Petitions” – No petitions created.

@123host this did not fix the problem.

Does this smoke test provide any insight? https://plugintests.com/plugins/speakout

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Lena1204.

Same problem here. I have the plugin on another site and is working nicely; we set up a new one today with the new (11 hour old) plugin version, and it does not create petitions. It has the same configuration as the other one.

OK. I found the problem. Database fields weren’t being installed on new installations of the plugin. I must have forgotten to update a script.

I will release a new version shortly. I am just trying to solve an issue if people don’t have recaptacha enabled.

Chasing tails here ??

Thanks, 123host!

I don’t know if the following will help with the above issue, or if it indicates another issue.

I just updated to version 1.20.2, and just happened to check the debug log, and saw the following two (2) instances of WordPress database error “Incorrect index name”:

[14-Dec-2019 07:51:07 UTC] updating if 1.20.2

[14-Dec-2019 07:51:07 UTC] WordPress database error Incorrect index name ” for query ALTER TABLE wp_~_dk_speakout_petitions ADD UNIQUE KEY (id) made by require_once(‘wp-load.php’), require_once(‘wp-config.php’), require_once(‘wp-settings.php’), do_action(‘plugins_loaded’), WP_Hook->do_action, WP_Hook->apply_filters, dk_speakout_update, dk_speakout_install, dbDelta

[14-Dec-2019 07:51:07 UTC] WordPress database error Incorrect index name ” for query ALTER TABLE wp_~_dk_speakout_signatures ADD UNIQUE KEY (id) made by require_once(‘wp-load.php’), require_once(‘wp-config.php’), require_once(‘wp-settings.php’), do_action(‘plugins_loaded’), WP_Hook->do_action, WP_Hook->apply_filters, dk_speakout_update, dk_speakout_install, dbDelta

Here’s a screen shot, since some of the backticks get converted to formatting in the posted text above:

For what it’s worth, I just did a test signing of an existing petition, after the update to 1.20.2, and the signing worked.

(Also, the auto display of the donation form in the confirmation stage also worked.)

Thanks again!

@123host activating recaptcha worked for our site, though we would prefer not to have it we are happy to be back up.

I am concerned about future plugin updates though. Wondering why we are not getting alerts from WP that there is an update available for the SpeakOut plugin. Instead, the plugin files are automatically updated without notification. If we were to add any CSS customization, it seems the code would be overwritten with the next plugin update. Is this correct? It sounds like @dougjoseph updated the plugin manually so I am wondering if there is a setting somewhere that I am missing.

All works great after update to 1.20.2. Thanks!

@dougjoseph I truly appreciate your (and others) help.

Those SQL query errors are strange. I have searched the entire code of the plugin and there is no instance of ADD UNIQUE KEY that I can find anywhere.

Can you please have a look in your version of /wpcontent/plugins/speakout/install.php and see if that is in there at all?

Version 1.20.2 solves the issue of not being able to sign if not using recpatcha.

I hadn’t even considered some people wouldn’t use recaptcha and really struggled to figure out how to have some code in a .js file when needed but not have it there when not. I am not happy with my workaround, but it fixes the problem.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. Maintaining SpeakOut! is a labour of love. I discovered the abandoned plugin and took it on because I wanted to use and improve it. I do it by myself for a rare donation and your feedback and testing helps a lot (more than you probably realise).

@lena1204 I can’t answer why your site isn’t updating. Are other plugins updating OK?

As for CSS – I suggest you add your customisations to the the theme custom CSS thingy, that way they aren’t affected by the plugin being updated.

@lena1204, as far as I know, unattended automatic updating of plugins is not a normal builtin part of WordPress. There must either be some feature of JetPack or some other outside service that you have somehow either authorized or installed, that would cause a plugin to update without your express consent. ??

Regarding CSS, I concur with the plugin developer, @123host, in that as a general rule, no direct edits to a plugin should ever be made for mere CSS tweaks. WordPress provides a free, builtin way for CSS edits to not only survive plugin updates, but even WordPress Core files updates. It’s found under the Customize feature, at the bottom.

@lena1204, also, for changes to a plugin more substantial than just CSS tweaks, one can always make a copy of the plugin, rename it, and make the changes to the copy. At that point, there is no way the changes could be overwritten by an update to the original plugin. As far as I know, since free plugins on WP.org are open source, I don’t think there would be any violation of copyrights to do such a practice. Be aware that if any future changes to WP cause either security vulnerability or deprecation of code or in any way break your copy of the plugin, you’d have to either handle it yourself, or if the original plugin gets updated to account for it, you could redo the prior copy-rename-edit process.